


What's In A Name?

by lindsey_grissom



Series: Crystal Heart [5]
Category: Doctor Who (2005), Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Universe, Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-10
Updated: 2010-01-10
Packaged: 2017-10-10 14:58:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/101030
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lindsey_grissom/pseuds/lindsey_grissom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Names are important, like decisions, they follow you the rest of your life.  Part of the <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/series/3978">Crystal Heart</a> 'Verse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What's In A Name?

"I think I've got it." He looks over to James at the other boy's exclamation, pausing the projection of text he has been reading for hours. "Come here and look, I think this one's perfect." There's excitement in James's voice, something that has been decidedly lacking since they started this search.

He picks himself up and moves to where James is seated, leaning over a large tome, an original book from the 21st century, if he isn't mistaken, but he can't tell the title without seeing the front cover.

James is tracing the words with his finger, his mouth forming them silently as he reads, and he feels his lips quirk up, James can be quite adorable sometimes.

He waits patiently, because it seems his friend has forgotten he is even in the room, let alone that he called him over, and then the finger pauses and moves back up the page to land beneath a name. Peering closer, he has to take a moment to remember his lessons, because even with names, the language of Earth has changed quite a lot in the centuries after this book was written.

"Jack Harkness." The name sounds familiar, like he has read it somewhere else before, which wouldn't be a surprise, this period in history is his favourite after all. "Jack Harkness." He repeats it again, his tongue circling the syllables. "I like it, but why this one?" They _have_ been searching for a name for years, and never found a name they both like. And he thinks it's important that they both like the name, because they're going to be stuck hearing it for years.

"Because this guy sounds like you, well like you always say you'll be. Oh why don't you look for yourself?" And James stands up and moves away, making room for his friend to take his place over the book.

He scans the pages, the imagery of battles and heroic acts come alive in his mind, and Jack Harkness, _Captain_ Jack Harkness is right there in the middle of it. He even died the death of heroes, saving his team but not himself.

It's not a name he would have picked for himself, because he isn't arrogant enough to think he could compare himself to such an amazing man, a man who exists in History books thirty centuries into the past. But he didn't pick the name, or the man, James did, and that makes all the difference.

He could keep searching though, because it is important that he finds a name that fits him flawlessly; he doesn't want any evidence that could lead back to his nameless origins. But he only has a week before he turns sixteen and if he's going to find another job and somewhere to live he is going to need a name. Soon. And Jack Harkness feels natural somehow, like it should be his name, and besides, it's the best they've come across.

"Okay." He pauses taking a deep breath before turning to James. "Hi, I'm Jack Harkness, nice to meet you." He holds out his hand to his grinning friend, who shakes it vigorously before pulling him into an embrace. It isn't like James to initiate a hug, so he knows he chose right, he's made his friend very happy if nothing else.

"Nice to meet you Jack." And now he's grinning too, because it really does sound right. What ever the past connotations of the name, whoever it used to belong to, it is his now and it suits him.

Although...

"You know you can't call me that at the Academy, right?" Because that would cause too much trouble for both of them. Too many people there know him as the Orphan, and they really wouldn't like it if he changed.

So he would be Blue for a little while longer, he could cope with that, and then once he was in the Time Agency, everyone would know him as Jack Harkness, he couldn't wait.

Movement to the side catches his attention and he turns to the sight of heavy set soldiers. One holds a recording pad; the other has both arms crossed in front of his chest. The badges on their uniforms spin and twist in a four dimensional image of a golden planet circled by three moons.

Lithnia.

It isn't so much his knowledge of planetary geography that tells him this; but he has heard frequently about the ongoing war there and it seems to fit.

A conscription.

He has, of course, read all about the forced conscriptions of Earth's World War Two and the sight of something familiar sends a tingle of excitement through him. This is what he has been waiting for. The sign that he can finally move towards his destiny; first his name and now these soldiers. Boeshane doesn't have a structured religion, but if it did, then God couldn't have sent more definite signals.

James has seen the soldiers too, but when Jack turns to him excitedly he just shakes his head and returns to packing away the tomes.

"Come on James, this is our chance."

"Our chance for what Jack? To die in the middle of a puddle of mud? Come on, we've got work to do before lessons tomorrow."

But Jack doesn't move to follow his friend out of the library's side entrance. His face is set in that adorable pout while he looks longingly at the soldiers.  
"Look we're too young anyway."

"Oh that doesn't matter James! They're desperate for help, why else would they try here? Boe hasn't had an army for over three hundred years. They're not likely to check our age out, not until it's too late anyway." It is hard, as usual, not to get swept up in his friend's enthusiasm, but James has to try. Even though part of him is already starting to agree.

"But what about the Time Agency, you do remember them don't you? You know, flying among the stars, saving timelines, any of this sound familiar to you? You can't become a Time Agent without finishing your lessons."

It is his final argument, a last ditch attempt to change his friend's mind. With anyone else, he would have another argument; family. But it doesn't apply to his blue-eyed companion and even now he cannot bring himself to make that haunted look appear again.

"The Agency recognises combat time just as much as qualifications. Plus with the experience, we'd be able to move up the ranks quicker in the long run. Come on, it won't be too bad. Days spent fighting for what's right, and nights of campfires and sharing stories."

He can see that he is winning his friend over; there is a faint sparkle in the brown eyes that always precludes – _in Jack's opinion _– a favourable decision.

"Okay, if they don't kick us out we'll sign-up. Maybe you're right, a bit of time spent off of Boe, it'll give us a taste of what the Agency will be like."

It is two grinning boys that move towards him. He has a suspicion that these confident men are younger than they say, younger than they should be to sign up for a war not their own. But his people are desperate now, the swift start of the war and the following drawn out years of fighting have left them with more death than life and so very little progress on either side.

Sometimes, in the darkest moments of the night, when the screams of those left behind fill the sleepless silences, he wishes it could all just be over. In those moments he finds that he doesn't care which side wins. Lithnia isn't what it used to be, there is no familiarity to his home now; just a broken battlefield. The injured continue to fight, there is no other option. No part of the planet is free from war, there is no respite and they could not afford the loss of soldiers even if there were.

No, if these boys wish to help, what ever their selfish reasons are, he will not stop them because of their age. Perhaps they will be the ones to turn the war around, or perhaps their deaths will simply spare others who may actually make a difference. He just wants it over.

 

**End.**


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